Breaking A Habit
by BubblyShell22
Summary: One-shot. Mikey has a habit of sucking his thumb. Can Splinter help him break this habit?


Breaking A Habit

A/N: I decided to write another chibi fic based on yet another personal experience in my life. I just thought of this today and wrote it out quickly, so I'm sorry if it seems rushed. I wanted to get the idea out as quickly as I could before I lost it. Sometimes if I don't write an idea out, it'll get lost, and I won't be able to retrieve it. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this fic. Feel free to leave a review once you've finished reading.

Summary: Mikey has a habit of sucking his thumb. Can Splinter help him outgrow this habit?

Disclaimer: I don't own the TMNT. I only own the plot of the story.

Splinter woke up to the sound of arguing. It appeared his sons were already awake and ready to start the day. The rat got out of bed and made his way to the room his sons shared. He saw Raphael glaring at Michelangelo in an annoyed way.

"My sons, what is the meaning of this fighting?" he asked them.

"Mikey keeps suckin' his thumb," Raphael replied. "Tell him to stop it."

Michelangelo took his thumb out of his mouth and stuck his tongue out at his brother. "So?" he snapped. "I'm not hurting you."

"You're annoying me," Raph retorted.

"Raphael, enough," chastised Splinter. "You may not like that Michelangelo sucks his thumb, but he is not harming you in any way. Now apologize to your brother for yelling at him."

"Sorry, Mikey," said Raph as he looked down at his feet.

"It's okay, Raphie," said Mikey as he stuck his thumb back in his mouth.

As Splinter went through the motions of the day, he could tell that Leonardo and Donatello were giving Michelangelo weird looks though they didn't make any comments. He wondered at their behavior and made a mental note to talk to them about it if the behavior persisted.

When his sons were put down for a nap (Raphael protested loudly at this, claiming he was too old for a nap) Splinter went to his room and read a book on parenting he'd scavenged out of a dumpster. He flipped through it until he came to a chapter on habits children often practiced, and thumb sucking was one of the habits this book addressed. As he read the chapter, he realized that Michelangelo should have stopped this thumb sucking by now, but he hadn't. Splinter was wondering what he ought to do about it and saw that the chapter presented a few methods to help him out. He decided to try at least two methods to see if they would work.

The next day, Splinter went scavenging and came upon a vendor who was selling candy. While the man was distracted, he took four bags of candy and left money so the man wouldn't think he had deliberately stolen them. He figured that the best way to test his son's willpower was to see if candy would help him overcome his bad habit. Splinter truly hoped that this would work.

When he got back to the Lair he presented his sons with the candy, saying that it was a treat for finishing the schoolwork they had been assigned to do. His sons were overjoyed and ate the candy happily, except for Michelangelo who still had his thumb in his mouth.

"Michelangelo, do you want some candy?" Splinter asked.

Mikey nodded.

"Then you must take your thumb out of your mouth," Splinter told him.

Mikey obeyed, and Splinter gave him some candy. After he was done with it, he put his thumb back in his mouth after asking for more.

Splinter had an idea, and he hoped it would work. "I will give you more candy if you keep your thumb out of your mouth," he said. "If you managed to not suck your thumb for the entire day, I will give you more candy." He hated having to bribe his son, but he figured it was the only way to help him out.

Mikey was excited about this proposition. All he had to do was keep his thumb out of his mouth. That would be easy. So Mikey made sure not to stick his thumb in his mouth for the rest of the day, though it was tempting to do so. He figured he was going to get some candy, but things turned out differently after Mikey had to take a nap. He went to sleep resolving not to suck his thumb, but his thumb somehow made it into his mouth.

Splinter looked in on his sons and saw that Michelangelo still had his thumb in his mouth. He sighed, knowing that one of the methods hadn't worked. He decided to give his son the candy after all, saying that Mikey had tried his best, and that was a good step in the right direction. Then Splinter remembered another method he had read about and decided to see if that one would work as well.

Splinter took out a bottle of vinegar and called Michelangelo over to him. He had read that vinegar had a horrible taste and was a good way to discourage children from sucking their thumb. Hopefully, he wouldn't fail with this method.

Michelangelo came running over. "What is it, Father?" he asked.

"I have a special lotion I want to give you," Splinter replied. "It will help your skin stay smooth. However, I want to make sure it works, so I will be putting it on your thumb first. Once I have figured out if it works, I will put it on the rest of your skin."

"Cool," Mikey said. "Will the others get it, too?"

"Yes, they will, but you will be the first," Splinter told him. This thrilled Mikey, and he eagerly held out his thumb so Splinter could put the "lotion" on it. The liquid felt funny to Mikey, but he was glad that he was the one who would get smooth skin first. Finally, he would get something before his brothers.

After Splinter was done, Mikey ran over to where Raphael was watching TV. "Hey, Raphie, wanna know something?' he asked.

"No, I'm watchin' a show," Raph said. "Buzz off."

"But it's really important," Mikey insisted. "I wanna tell you."

Raph sighed in annoyance. "Okay, what is it?" he asked.

"Father gave me a lotion that'll make my skin smoother," Mikey announced.

"So?" Raph said. "What's so great about that?"

"I get smooth skin, you doofus," Mikey laughed. Then he left to tell Donatello the news. He found Donnie drawing plans for a car he wanted to build when he got older.

"Hey, Donnie, guess what?" Mikey said.

"What?" Don replied.

"Father gave me lotion that'll make my skin smooth," Mikey told him "Feel it." He held out his thumb.

Don felt the thumb, but he didn't think it felt smooth. "It feels all yucky to me," he said.

"That's 'cause it hasn't set in yet," Mikey said. Seeing that Don wasn't interested, he saw Leo reading a book and told him the news.

"That's nice, Mikey," Leo said absently and continued with his book.

Mikey was mad. Stupid brothers, he thought. They don't care about me or my skin. He sat by himself and inspected his thumb. It didn't look any different to him. He put it in his mouth because he was bored and tasted a horrible taste. Yuck! What was that? Mikey put his thumb in his mouth again and wrinkled his beak. It tasted worse than broccoli! But hadn't Splinter told them that broccoli was good for them, and they had to eat it? Well, maybe the lotion was supposed to taste yucky in order to help his skin. He decided that for his skin's sake, he would endure the taste and put his thumb back in his mouth.

Splinter sighed again as he watched his son. Yet another method had failed, and Splinter couldn't think of anything else to do. He resigned himself to the fact that this was one habit Michelangelo just wasn't going to break at all.

A few days later, Splinter went scavenging again and soon found a discarded book. He looked at the cover and decided that it would be a good book for his sons, so he picked it up and took it home. Once he was in his room, he read the book and soon found it was the solution to his problem. This was his final effort, and he knew that if this failed, all was lost.

"Read us a story, Father," Michelangelo begged when it was time for bed.

"All right," Splinter said, and he settled down with the book he had found that day.

All of his sons were curious to know what their father was going to read about. Donatello hoped for a book about the stars, Raphael wanted a story with action, Leonardo wanted one of the Japanese stories, and Michelangelo wanted a fairy tale with a beautiful princess who was in trouble until a handsome prince came to her rescue.

To the Turtles' chagrin, the book wasn't about any of these things. It was about a boy named David who loved to suck his thumb. It was a habit his parents couldn't break him of, and they were worried about him. When David went to the dentist, he found out that sucking his thumb could make his teeth go bad. After the visit, David didn't suck his thumb anymore because he wanted to have a pretty smile.

Splinter could tell that his sons had listened carefully and that they were thoughtful, especially Michelangelo. After a few questions, Splinter ushered his sons into bed and kissed them goodnight, wishing them sweet dreams.

Before he went to sleep, Mikey thought more about David. He knew that David stopped sucking his thumb so his teeth wouldn't go bad and that he was brave for doing so. Mikey was curious to know how his teeth would go bad if he kept sucking his thumb, but he didn't want that to happen at all. He decided that from now on he wasn't going to suck his thumb anymore and wondered if he would ever meet David. Maybe they could be friends someday.

Splinter decided to check on his sons before he went to sleep himself. As he looked in, he saw that Michelangelo had fallen asleep with his thumb out of his mouth. Splinter smiled at this sight, happy that at least one method had worked that wasn't even in the book. He decided that if he ever wrote a book on parenting, he would introduce the method of introducing the children to someone who once practiced the habit and had the courage to break it.

A/N: Yes, this was based on one of my experiences. I used to suck my thumb, and my mom couldn't get me to stop. While she didn't bribe me with candy as far as I can recall, she did use vinegar, but it didn't work. When I went to the dentist, I read a book about a boy named David who loved to suck his thumb but found out that doing so could damage his teeth. After that, I never sucked my thumb again. I hope you enjoyed this story. Please feel free to leave a review once you've finished reading. Have a shell-tastic day.


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